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Codex Issues / #19754

Codex Desktop stuck in Plan Mode despite UI showing Implementation Mode

Open 💬 2 comments Opened Apr 27, 2026 by cakeindia
💡 Likely answer: A maintainer (github-actions[bot], contributor) responded on this thread — see the highlighted reply below.

What version of the Codex App are you using (From “About Codex” dialog)?

Version 26.422.30944 (2080)

What subscription do you have?

Plus

What platform is your computer?

Darwin 25.3.0 arm64 arm

What issue are you seeing?

Codex stuck in Plan Mode despite UI showing Implementation Mode

<img width="917" height="438" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/6e5c3a00-f404-473a-a838-8e91a567e265" />

Context:

  • Rate limit ~4% remaining
  • Tried toggling modes multiple times

Actual:
Codex insists it's in Plan Mode

What steps can reproduce the bug?

Steps:

  1. Switched Plan Mode OFF
  2. UI shows Implementation Mode
  3. Codex still refuses to implement

What is the expected behavior?

Expected:
Codex should implement

Additional information

_No response_

View original on GitHub ↗

2 Comments

github-actions[bot] contributor · 4 months ago

Potential duplicates detected. Please review them and close your issue if it is a duplicate.

  • #18954

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Roland0511 · 2 months ago

I'm seeing the same issue in Codex Desktop.

The UI shows that Plan Mode has been turned off / the session is in Implementation Mode, but the assistant still refuses to edit files or execute implementation steps because it says the current thread is still under Plan Mode instructions.

What I tried:

  • Toggled out of Plan Mode in the UI.
  • Quit and reopened Codex Desktop.
  • Returned to the same thread and asked it to execute again.

Observed result:

  • The assistant still says the thread contains Plan Mode developer instructions and cannot perform mutations.
  • It specifically behaves as if the stale # Plan Mode (Conversational) developer instruction is still active in the model context.

This looks very similar to #27200 and possibly related to #25582, where stale Plan Mode developer instructions can remain visible even after the UI mode changes.

Expected:

  • When the UI exits Plan Mode, the model context should receive an explicit reset/update so the assistant can execute implementation steps in the same thread.

Workaround:

  • Start a new thread and paste the plan there, but that loses continuity and is disruptive.